Five-Spice Turkey Stir Fry

We had this for lunch today. I have to admit that the main reason I wanted to try this one is to use up more of the 5-spice powder it calls for, which I have used only once so far and paid like $9 for or something ridonkulous like that. But it ended up being a good recipe, Steve really liked it. It's from the BH&G 365 Last Minute Meals. I must say I am loving how fast these recipes are coming together, they are not kidding when they say "last minute."

Five-Spice Turkey Stir Fry
1 4.4 oz pkg beef lo-mein noodle mix (if you can find this, you rock. I ended up using Lipton Asian Sides Teriyaki Noodles, which was still lo-mein but a different flavor. It was still OK)
12 oz turkey breast tenderloin, cut into thin bite-size strips
1/4 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 of a 16 oz pkg frozen stir fry vegetables
2 tbsp chopped peanuts (I left these out because my whole family is basically anti-nut, except me...)

Prepare noodle mix according to pkg directions; set aside. In a small bowl toss together turkey strips, five-spice powder, salt, and pepper; set aside. Pour 1 tbsp of the oil into a wok (hello? does anybody actually have a wok? I think my dad has one in the shed from his brief foray into Chinese cooking...remember "Wok with Yan?") or large skillet. Heat over medium-high heat. Carefully add frozen vegetables to skillet; cook and stir for 3 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet. Add remaining 1 tbsp oil to hot skillet. Add turkey mixture; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until turkey is no longer pink. Return vegetables to skillet. Cook and stir about 1 minute more or until heated through. To serve, divide noodle mixture among 4 dinner plates (unless you have picky children. In that case, make them PB & J and divide the noodle mixture among 2 dinner plates, leaving some in the pot for leftovers). Top with turkey mixture; sprinkle with peanuts (if using).

So I think Steve was so excited to have a meal with vegetables! The mix I got was something like Asian Stir Fry Vegetables (the Great Value brand). It had broccoli, sugar snap peas, summer squash, and carrots. You can guess what I ate out of that. Anyway he really really liked this, had seconds, and told me he loved me so much (all positive signs of a good meal). I thought it was pretty good too. And having it with turkey was a nice change, since we seem to have chicken so much. And I bought turkey breasts at Wal-mart, didn't get specifically "tenderloin" but they were still really moist, and got 1.2 lbs for just under $4. I thought that was pretty reasonable. It's a keeper (how can it not be with Steve's reaction?).

An interesting side note: Typing recipes gives you a really good handle on using the semi-colon (;). Did you notice how many times it was used in this recipe? The cookbook author used the semi-colon a lot; they must have done well in English in high school. See?

Chicken with Dried Fruit and Honey

Not a very inventive name, since that was just about the only ingredients, but it is what it is. We had this last night for supper, it was very tasty. It's from the BH&G 365 Last Minute Meals. It's from the "fall" section, which as I said before just happens to be at the front of the cookbook, and of course I am going in order...but this is definitely a "fallish" recipe.

Chicken with Dried Fruit and Honey
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (it's expensive to buy and you might already have the ingredients: 1/4 cup cinnamon, and 1 tbsp each of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves...it makes a bunch, but it keeps)
1 tbsp butter
1 cup mixed dried fruit bits
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup honey

Sprinkle 1 side of each chicken thigh with pumpkin pie spice. In a 12 inch skillet, melt butter over medium high heat. Add chicken thighs; reduce heat to medium. Cook about 4 minutes or until brown, turning occasionally. Stir fruit bits, water, and honey into skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (180 degrees).

In my continuing quest to get the kids to like rice because of Haiti, I made this with rice and put some of the sauce with the fruit over it. Everyone liked the chicken, but Sam is the only kid who will eat rice right now. Emma and Nathan just keep saying "I don't like rice." Fine then, what will you eat when we are in Haiti? I simply do not know. Hee hee. They'll get used to it I suppose. Or just eat lots of bananas. But the chicken was yummy and tender. It smelled fabulous while it was cooking. The dried fruit kind of rehydrated while it was cooking so it wasn't chewy like raisins, it was like real fruit...I think our mix was blueberries and cranberries, whatever they had at the Wal-mart. We will definitely have this again once it actually is fall.

Garlic Roast Beef Sandwiches

This is one of those recipes that I look at the picture and know it's not going to be a healthy one, but it looks and sounds so yummy that I can't resist...it's from Simple & Delicious July/Aug 2009. We had it for lunch on Friday, when Steve had the day off from work.

Garlic Roast Beef Sandwiches
1 loaf (10 oz) frozen garlic bread (don't buy the kind with cheese already on it)
1/2 lb sliced fresh mushrooms (left these out due to their slimy grossness)
2/3 cup sliced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
4 tsp butter
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 lb shaved deli roast beef (I just bought the Hillshire Farms Deli Selects...the kind that comes in Glad Ware...it was $3 and it's cooked...we don't like rare roast beef)
6 slices colby cheese (they didn't have this pre-sliced at Wal-mart, and to buy it at the deli it was $7 per lb...yikes...we are not cheese connoisseurs by any means (as evidenced by the fact that I cannot even spell that word) so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to use the American cheese we already had at home. I was right)

Bake garlic bread according to pkg directions. Meanwhile, in a large sillet, saute the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the butter until vegetables are tender. Stir in worcestershire sauce. Layer each half of garlic bread with roast beef, vegetable mixture, and cheese. Return to oven; bake 1-2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Slice and serve immediately. 6 servings

Well, they didn't have 10 oz frozen garlic bread @ Wal-mart, they only had 16 oz. But I didn't double the amount of the rest of the recipe and it was still fine. We still have half of this left over, which I am planning to serve for lunch today. Some of it I made without onions for Samuel (I didn't even try this with the younger two); he only ate the meat and cheese and left the garlic bread behind, saying he wasn't that hungry, which is what he usually says when he doesn't like something but doesn't want to hurt my feelings (he is such a sweet boy). Steve and I really liked it. It was messy to eat but tasted really good. A nice change for lunch sometime. It's a keeper.

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

We had Grampie come over for supper tonight since Steve is still gone and the kids LOVE him. He's my dad's dad, and he thinks we're special, yes (if you know him you can probably hear him saying that). He brought his "lady friend" with him as well. We had a nice evening really. This recipe is from the BH & G 365 meals one.

Oven-Fried Pork Chops
3 tbsp butter
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 cup packaged corn bread stuffing mix
4 pork chops

Preheat oven to 425. Place butter in 13x9 baking dish; place in the preheated oven about 3 minutes or until butter is melted. Meanwhile, in a shallow dish beat egg with a fork; stir in milk. Place dry stuffing mix in another shallow dish. Dip pork chops into egg mixture. Coat both sides with stuffing mix. Place chops in baking pan with the butter. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Turn chops over. Bake for 10 - 15 more minutes or until 160 and juices run clear.

Okay so this was SO good. I thought it didn't really get enough stuffing on it so once it was in the pan I sprinkled a bit more on. The kids weren't crazy about this but that's because they're crazy anyway. It was very very tasty and definitely a keeper. We had it with mashed potatoes and baked beans, because I didn't realize until 4:30 that we had no vegetables to cook, and they were coming at 5:00. But that's okay because potatoes are a vegetable, as are baked beans, so...Also we had the other half of the sliced french bread from when my parents and sister were here on Saturday. Overall a very good meal.

Peanut Butter & Fudge Swirl Pie

This is what we had for dessert after the soup. It's from the latest Kraft Food & Family, summer 2009.

Peanut Butter & Fudge Swirl Pie
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups thawed cool whip
1 oreo pie crust (couldn't find this at Wal-mart or Hannaford either...I used graham cracker)
1/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping (I didn't want to pay $4 for a jar of hot fudge that I only needed 1/4 cup of, when I always have chocolate syrup on hand for chocolate milk, so...I used chocolate syrup)

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and peanut butter in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in cool whip until blended. Spoon into crust; drizzle with fudge topping. Swirl gently with knife. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

This ended up being just the right size for 4 adults and 4 kids. We all liked ours. Nathan and Jordan each had a couple of bites then left the table. Sam ate their leftovers plus his. Emma ate hers. So I think this was a good one. Have to make it again when Steve gets home since he likes all things peanut butter.

Chicken and Shells Soup

So Steve is off in Haiti again but I didn't want to miss more weeks of New Recipe Night since I already missed some by going to New Hampshire last week...anyway I have often said that cooking for my children is like painting for a blind man, because they just do not appreciate it! So last night my sister and my parents came over and we had this and it was a great chance to try the recipe. My mom loves soup, my dad could take it or leave it, but hey I can't please everyone here! It's from my sister's cookbook Better Homes & Gardens 365 Last-Minute Meals.

Chicken and Shells Soup
2 14 oz cans reduced sodium chicken broth (I used full sodium)
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed (my sister crushed it by putting it the palms of her hands and smooshing them together)
1/2 tsp bottled minced garlic
12 oz skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces (I precooked the chicken and cubed it, but you could cut it up raw and add it that way, that's how the recipe says to)
3/4 cup dried small shell macaroni (couldn't find small shell in Wal-mart or Hannaford. I ended up using mini bowties)
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion (2)(I left this out because a package of green onions has like 20 in it and it seemed wasteful to buy them for only (2))

In a medium saucepan combine chicken broth, italian seasoning, and garlic; bring to a boil. Add chicken and pasta. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 8 to 9 minutes or until pasta is tender and chicken is no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Add frozen peas and green onion; cook about 2 minutes more or until peas are crisp-tender. 4 servings.

I doubled the recipe to feed 4 adults and 4 children, still have about 1 1/2 servings' worth leftover. My mom said a few times that it was good soup. My dad didn't say anything. But at least he didn't say "Let's not have this again real soon" which is what he tells my mom when he doesn't really like something new. Can't remember exactly what Jessica said, she can add her own comments on facebook anyway once it's posted, but I do know she ate it. The kids did about as well as I would expect, and that's all I can say about that. I will keep this one though because it was quite easy and very tasty.

We had this with french bread that Hannaford had nicely presliced for us. Jess laid the bread out on a cookie sheet, spread the tops with butter, sprinkled with garlic powder and shredded cheese. Mmmmmm. So good. Dad had 3 pieces of the bread so we know he liked that at least!

Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers

I made this last week before we went to New Hampshire but then got too busy to post it. I doubled the recipe and made some for us and some for friends of ours that had just had a baby. Because one of their girls really likes meatballs and sausages and stuff like that. The recipe is from Kraft Food & Family Summer 2009. It says to make it on the grill, which I'm sure you could, but I just made it in the oven using a broiler pan and the broiler. Steve wasn't home and I never grill alone (mostly because I don't know how to even turn it on).

Sweet and Sour Meatball Skewers
32 frozen fully cooked 1-inch meatballs (1 pound), thawed
1 red pepper, cut into 1 inch squares
1 green pepper, cut into 1 inch squares
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (of course I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

Heat grill to medium high heat. Thread meatballs and peppers alternately onto 8 skewers (if you are using wooden skewers you should soak them in water for a few minutes first so they don't ignite when you put them on the grill or in the oven). Microwave jam in small microwaveable bowl on high 15 seconds. Stir in barbecue sauce. Brush half on kabobs. Grill 8 to 10 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, turning occasionally and brushing with remaining jam mixture the last 2 minutes. I put them under the broiler for like 4 minutes, turned them, then put more jam mixture on them. Some of the meatballs got pretty charred and the second batch (which was our family's) the sticks got pretty toasted. But there's only one setting for the broiler, so...anyway B Rad said it was a hit with his family but I never got to ask B Autumn directly. Hopefully she will post a comment once this is on facebook. She can be brutally honest...you guys want the truth, right? Anyway if I made these again I think I might add pineapple in or something. These were pretty good though. Even though no one at my house ate the peppers...we just ate the meatballs. But still good.